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to creep to other cotton fields. A generally introduced rota- 

 tion of crops must accordingly greatly diminish this dreadful 

 enemy of our principal southern staple. We perceive, there- 

 fore, how beneficial such a rotation of crops must be; it not 

 only prevents the most pernicious diseases of the cotton plant, 

 but also the ravages of its most dangerous enemy, the boll- 

 worm, and will certainly save us the one-third of the whole 

 crop. 



In our prairie soils, and wet and heavy soils in general, there 

 is another cause which produces the rust among the cotton ; 

 this is the superabundance of moisture and the stagnation of 

 the rain-water in the field. It is this which renders the prairie 

 soil especially subject to the rust of the cotton plant. Too 

 much moisture and stagnant water, heated by the rays of the 

 sun, produce immediately a stagnation in the growth of that 

 vegetable ; it does not allow it to imbibe enough of that solid 

 matter necessary for its growth, especially as this plant is 

 much more adapted to dry and light, than to wet and heavy 

 soil ; if we, therefore, will plant cotton in heavy and wet, es- 

 pecially in prairie soil, it is absolutely necessary that this soil 

 should be as much as possible protected against superabund- 

 ance of moisture and stagnation of rain-water. This can only 

 be done by a vigorous system of draining ; by ditching where 

 it is necessary, and leading the water, by means of deep fur- 

 rows, into the ditches. In fact, in no soil a system of ditching 

 is more necessary than in the prairie soil. If it is neglected 

 even only in one place, and the rust makes its appearance, if 

 only in that one place, it will soon spread over the largest 

 portion of the field, it being an infective disease ; the minute 

 seeds of the microscopic mushroom ripen quick, and are car- 

 ried by the slightest breeze all over the field. 



University of Mississippi, Dec. 23, 1854. L. IIAEPEE. 



